Ray Bradbury, Science Fiction Author, Passes Away at 91

Posted 6/6/12 – Ray Bradbury, noted author of science fiction since the 1940s, has passed away at the age of 91. Bradbury appeared on Feb. 7, 2009 in Sierra Madre at the Sierra Madre School auditorium as part of the 2009 One Book, One City program which featured the book with which he is probably most associated, Fahrenheit 451. The Sierra Madre Community Foundation funded a grant that paid for Mr. Bradbury’s appearance before a standing room only crowd.

Ray Bradbury, the writer whose expansive flights of fantasy and vividly rendered space-scapes have provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future, has died. He was 91.

Bradbury’s daughter confirmed his death to the Associated Press on Wednesday morning. She

Author of more than 27 novels and story collections — most famously “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Dandelion Wine” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” — and more than 600 short stories, Bradbury has frequently been credited with elevating the often maligned reputation of science fiction. Some say he singlehandedly helped to move the genre into the realm of literature.

“The only figure comparable to mention would be [Robert A.] Heinlein and then later [Arthur C.] Clarke,” said Gregory Benford, a UC Irvine physics professor and Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer. “But Bradbury, in the ‘40s and ‘50s, became the name brand.”